The Missouri River Regional Library's Missouri Book Challenge Team
Not too many books out there on Locker Hooking. One of the instructors at Camp Shannondale in Southern Missouri teaches this craft, and I’ve been intrigued. I really love the modern look achieved with brighter colors, and fancy fabric, like recycled sari silk.
This book contained both excellent instructions for beginners, as well as “patterns” for cool projects. I’ve seen a lot of the photos/projects in her book on the Pinterest website.
Tom-boy Caddie Woodlawn, is growing up on the fron
tier in Wisconsin.
I really empathized with Caddie, when her Mom punished her harshly, but Not her brothers, because “she was a girl and should have known better”. However, her father punishes the boys.
I liked the fact that when Caddie starts doing more domestic activities, that her brothers follow her, because they’re pals.
The author tells more and shows less, leading to a quaint, less accessible read. The story got better as it progressed.
Booklist: Starred Review!
This was a fun read! Unlike most romances where the relationship between the two protagonists is plagued by misunderstandings, and self-doubt. It is also an unusual romance novel in that the woman propositions the man. Martha, just widowed, needs to conceive an heir, within the next month, or the country estate falls to her rapist brother-in-law. Martha is a practical do-gooder. The rake that she hires to “give” her an heir, Theo, was exiled from London to the country by his father, for being a lay-about, money spender.
Both of them learn to be better people, Theo learns to take an interest in his estate, and start caring for people. Martha learns to let her hair down a bit, and get to know her neighbors as real human beings, Not charity cases.
There is humor and awkward sex. 3 out of 4 hot chilli peppers, as far as spiciness goes.
This book was recommended to me, by experts at the Reader’s Advisory Workshop I attended.
A delightful tale – Kit travels to Puritan New England from Barbedos, after her grandfather dies. She must learn to adjust to new strict norms, but befriends an older Quaker woman (believed to be a witch) who lives out by Blackbird Pond.
I wish the book had more of an epilogue, I’m tempted to write one myself.
Harper Kane Olympic Swimmer gets caught up shady government operations, when her microbiologist brother Bobby is killed after he develops a serum that gives people psi-onic powers. Now the government that funded these experiments wants her dead, and they send in their best op Rome Lucian. Unfortunately, for the government, Rome realizes something is fishy, and decides to aid Harper.
T
his was a fun quick read. However, the plotting could be more credible, with less coincidences. Like why would Bobby be shot, the very day, the very minute, Harper arrives for a visit?
Poetry. 
This was a book about longing to be reunited with those you’ve loved. I had to read it 3 times through, to get a full sense of the narrative. Even then, the poetic lines are open to multiple interpretat
ions, feeling like the mist slipping through ones fingers.
The protagonist Tara Martin disappeared 20 years ago. When she returns she claims she spent 6 months in Faery. Her family and boyfriend have been devastated by her disappearance and respond in various ways to her tale. I’m Not sure this really belongs in SciFi, since the focus is more on the internal psychological 
world than the magical aspects.
So I liked a lot of the book, but unlike many other reviewers could see the ending from a mile away (well not the epilogue part). Perhaps, it reminded me of the book “Giants of the Frost” by Kim Wilkins.
Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia, named for Shakespearean characters by their father a Shakespearean professor, each struggles with their individual weaknesses and limitations. The adult sisters find themselves at home together for a summer, helping their mother with breast cancer. Rosalind, the oldest, has always been the solid responsible one, never venturing far from home. Bianca, the middle child, always outshone by her sisters, carved a niche for herself within fashion and looks. Unfortunately, her expensive habits caught up with her in New York, and she has returned home after her employers discovered Bianca’s embezzling of the company. Cordelia, the youngest, never expected to be responsible, has followed the gypsy life, couch-surfing, until she gets pregnant, and also returns home.
The story is told from an interesting perspective, from the omniscient we of the sisters, sometimes its from all three sisters, sometimes its from 2 sisters perspectives.
I also liked the way stories from the past were interwoven, with the current issues. If you like Anne Tyler, you’d probably like this book
In the conclusion, the third book in this 2nd trilogy of the Nine Kingdoms, Sarah and Ruith battle their way past an astounding number of evil-doers. Sarah always retains this mousy-ness about her. Ruith thinks she’s oh so courageous, but she’s always hesitant, but insistent. I wonder if the author knew what she was going to do with all the various characters, some of the key players were introduced for the very first time in the second book of the trilogy. I much preferred the charismatic Morgan woman-warrior. Well I hope the 2nd book the the 3rd trilogy is as good as the 1st title in the 3rd trilogy, whenever it comes out.
An entertaining satire of Armageddon. Like many soldiers/players, despite being on opposing team, after being stationed in the same area for millennia, demon Crowley & angel Aziraphale have developed a working relationship, finding that in some ways, that they have more in common with their counterpart in the field, than the higher-ups on their team. Both Crowley & Aziraphale have changed, more through their association with humans, than the influence of each other. Then Crowley is handed the baby AntiChrist. Demon Crowley realizes he doesn’t want the world to end, that he has enjoyed his time on this plane. Aziraphale grapples with the paradox of the AntiChrist, needing the AntiChrist’s presence in order to bring about the Grand Plan Armageddon, even though it means the destruction of the earth. Azirafale has also enjoyed his time on the earth, and dreads the boredom of heaven.
Then the AntiChrist goes missing having been mistakenly switched at birth.
Initially I wasn’t sure I was up for a dystopian narrative, however, Gaiman & Pratchett do a good job, razzing both sides. This was a delightful tale, with biting humor. I bet Gaiman & Pratchett really enjoyed writing this book.
Thorn is living in the end of times, though an its ambigous end of times, seraphs and demons are still fighting in a post-apocalyptic-ice-age. Thorn is part of a new species, neomages, who are able to bend leftover creation energy to their will. Specifically she is a stone mage, and since mages present a threat to both humans and seraphs they are confined to luxurious Enclaves. Thorn is passing for a human, working as a jeweler, in a remote icy town. When her ex-husband Lucas is kidnapped and her friends are threatened, she risks revealing her true identity in order to save her adopted family.
BloodRing is
a fastpaced page turner. Lush imagery and really interesting world-building (especially the magic-working of the gems) add to the tale. Though the book does NOT end on a cliff-hanger, it fails to wrap up a number of the mysteries. Who is the Amethyst Mistress? Why did Lucas haul all that amethyst back to the store/house for his ex-wife? did he really cheat on Thorn voluntarily and what is his latest wife up to?
A very nice collection of Christmas crafts. I’m Not sure that the projects are all that different from other Christmas craft books. But the projects look much classier than a lot of others, I couldn’t tell if this was mainly due to the color choice (lots of creams, beige, neutrals) or because of the high quality craftpersonship. It is inspiring – but I have enough knitting projects at the moment, not to have been tempted to carry out any projects. 
Sarah and Ruith continue their quest to gather up the parchments containing Gairs evil spells, that are littered across the Nine Kingdoms. They pay lovely visits to all sorts of folks including the Dwarf king, and Morag the Witch Queen of Anwuallach. In the process they learn some very interesting facts about Sarah’s true heritage (because every fantasy protagonist is required to be an Orphan!).
I’m Not racing through this trilogy as I had been the earlier as well as the latter trilogies. Perhaps, this trilogy isn’t as good as the others, or perhaps, they’re getting a little formulaic. Also the humorous banter between the two protagonists (ie Miach & Morgan) is lacking.
Nonetheless enjoyable.
Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.
Seventh daughter SUNDAY Woodcutter, befriends an enchanted frog-prince, Grumble, in the forest. Although her kiss does Not return him to his human form right away, eventually her love for him does the trick. Unfortunately, when he awakens, he remembers that her family loathes him.
Kontis deftly weaves in narrative themes from multiple fairy tales, from Jack in the Beanstalk, to Sleeping Beauty, to Rumpelstiltskin, to Cinderella, Dancing Princesses. This is a fast-paced book, that at times fails thoroughly explain all the synchronicities. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the book. Sweet and inventive.
Yes there is at least one vampire or perhaps 2.
The book opens with the protagonist B.B. falling for a rich, good-looking man, with a yacht. They do boring stuff, like hang out on the deck, and he buys her expensive jewelry. In addition he does listen to her and fix some of her troubles. Despite this, it was very difficult to see what the attraction was, surely people are Not that shallow, that they only see the gleam of wealth. The man turns out to be a con man, and fleeces B.B.,it was difficult to empathize with her. Then although he steals/defrauds her of $4mill! they cannot follow him into another state, because she signed a Power of Attorney, to him in the middle of the night, and the law won’t go after him, BECAUSE HE IS IN ANOTHER STATE! seriously?
By the end of the book protagonist BB is making life changing to commitments to with another guy Harry, who is physically attracted to her, but that’s all, oh and he is grouchy.
Is all chick lit this bad? I chose this author because, she was supposed to be funny, I did Not laugh, nor chuckle, maybe it contained this new-fangled cringe-humor.
Another Awesome novel by Gaiman! Richard Mayhew leads a boring negligible life, pushed around at work and by his fiance named Jessica. Then, though he and Jessica are running late for a critical dinner, he stops to help a bleeding unconscious street urchin, named Door, a resident of DownBelowLondon. His involvement with this underworlder leads him to slip through the cracks and become invisible/nonexistent to the in the London Above world. He returns to London Below , seeks out the girl Door, and persuades her to let him accompany her on her search for her parents’ killers.
Gaiman excels at worldbuilding and tangible atmosphere. There is a steam-punk feel to this novel, though it was published in 2003, well before the steampunk craze.
I just love this author.
Yes there is a vampire character in the book, named Lamia.
Scientist John Medina presents 12 basic principles on how your brain works. He illustrates how you can apply these principles to improve your life. Medina uses stories to demonstrate how these principle work. Some of the principles include: the best way to exercise your brain is actually physical exercise – not cross-word puzzles or Sudoku, or special computer games, rather aerobic exercise! it improves cognition and cuts the risk of dementia in half; the brain is incapable of multitasking that involves dividing one’s attention; we learn and remember best through pictures not through words – so chuck your old text-based power-point presentations and create new ones filled with graphics and pictures. He also discusses learning from 1 form of sensory input – visual or auditory – versus 2 forms of input – visual AND auditory – and how multi-sensory learning is quite superior to a single mode of input. In connection with his discussion on sleep, he highlights the time period with the highest # of accidents 3-5pm in the afternoon.
I enjoyed learning about the way our brains work, Medina’s writing is clear, engaging and infused with a sense of humor.
Medina knows what holds people’s attention, and knows how helpful narratives are to explaining impersonal research studies.
Now you know why I include so many graphics in my reviews!
In the 2nd Trilogy in the Nine Kingdom Series we are introduced to Morgan’s sibling Ruith and Sarah of Doire. Presumed dead, Ruith has been masquerading as an old grumpy mountain mage. Sarah of Doire bangs on Ruith’s door requesting help in apprehending her brother Daniel who has set out to destroy the world one mage at a time. Ruith has suppressed all his magic, Sarah is presumed to have some magic, but evinces none. On their way to find Daniel, they collect a rag-tag group of injured mages, each with their own quirks, who insist on joining the quest.
As in her other books, the narrator changes with each chapter, alternating between the female protagonist, and the male protagonist. I am impressed with Kurland’s ability to maintain a cohesive narrative, never having to double back in time with either narrator.
Not as fast paced as Kurland’s first Nine Kingdoms trilogy but very enjoyable nonetheless.
Monologues on various themes examining women’s relationships to their bodies and their sexual selves. These themes include women’s discomfort with their sexuality and bodies, rape, child birth, power dynamics in a relationship, genital mutilation. Though the topics are mature and graphic, they are not presented in a salacious way - beautifully written, moving and very thought provoking. Eve Ensler interviewed hundreds of women on their feelings, their thoughts, their experience of their bodies and their sexuality and wrote these monologues. These monologues create a space for women to feel comfortable talking openly about their sexuality.
I re
ally liked this book! Parkes (of the very useful site http://knittersreview.com/) provides detailed information about the various qualities and classifications of yarn available on the market. I appreciated the fact that she examined so many different varieties of yarn sources (eg vicuna) including hybrid sourced yarn, starting off with a family-tree” of fiber types. She discusses different methods of plying, ways to prepare fiber, as well as the various sources of fiber (animals, plants, manufactured).
I learned a lot. For example I learned about woolen-spun versus worsted-spun yarn – most yarn on the market is woolen spun, where they leave the short fibers in, creating a loftier and warmer yarn and therefore warmer material. The worsted-spun yarn takes only the longer staples of wool, and creates a more tightly plied – and therefore less warm – yarn, that really shows off stitch patterns, and its probably more expensive since they’re using more refined material, going that extra step.
She also provided many side by side comparisons of a given wool in one form versus the same wool but in another form (eg worsted spun versus woolen spun). She provides patterns specific to each yarn type that she examines. Though I liked that she provided brand name examples of the various yarns she discussed, I really wish her lists had been longer with more diversity. For example, for the worsted spun yarn, all her examples were 100% Cotton, cotton has no elasticity and hurts my hands, so n
one of the examples were helpful to me.
Overall though a really great book, I’m so glad we have it in our collection! I think I need to read all of her other books.